System and method for generating a user profile

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for generating a user profile. The method discloses: receiving a user profile request from a profile requester; identifying profile fragments with a profile mediator, from existing profiles in a profile corpus which are responsive to the user profile request; aggregating the identified profile fragments into the user profile response; and transmitting the user profile response to the profile requestor. The system discloses various means and modules for effecting the method.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method executed by a computer for generating a user profile response, comprising:
 receiving a request from a profile requestor to create or to modify a profile for a particular user; 
 identifying profile fragments from existing profiles for the particular user that are contained in a profile corpus, the identified profile fragments responsive to the request; 
 aggregating the identified profile fragments into the user profile response; and 
 transmitting the user profile response to the profile requestor. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 :
 wherein the request includes one from a group of: a profile specification, a sample profile, an ontology, and instance data from which an ontology can be inferred. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 :
 wherein the profile requestor is one from a group including: an application program, a software agent, a computer, and a business entity. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating the existing profiles contained in the profile corpus by one from a group including:
 acquiring a profile from a service; 
 creating a profile based on an interaction with a service; and 
 maintaining a profile in cooperation with a service. 
 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 :
 wherein the profile fragments include information about one from a group of: an individual, a business, a computer, an application, and a web service. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 :
 wherein the profile fragments include one from a group of: a set of explicit domain ontologies, a set of inferred domain ontologies, and a set of semantics. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
 identifying an existing ontology mapping, stored in an ontology and concept repository, between the request and the existing profiles; and 
 using the mapping to select the profile fragments. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
 calculating a semantic distance between profile fragments in the existing profiles and a profile specification in the request; and 
 selecting those profile fragments from the existing profiles which are within a threshold semantic distance from the profile specification in the user profile request. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 updating the threshold based on information received from the profile requestor. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
 receiving feedback from the profile requestor based on previous user profile responses sent to the profile requestor; 
 using the feedback to train a profile mediator; and 
 
       selecting the profile fragments based on the training. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
 identifying profile fragments according to a set of different approaches executed in parallel; and 
 wherein the fragments of each approach are compared and selected using multi-expert techniques. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
 identifying profile fragments using a semantic distance computed using an ontology and concept repository. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 filtering which of the profile fragments are included in the user profile response based on a user-selected persona. 
 
     
     
       14. An article comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a computer to:
 receive a request from a profile requestor to create or to modify a profile for a particular user; 
 identify profile fragments with a profile mediator, from existing profiles for the particular user in a profile corpus, wherein the identified profile fragments are responsive to the request; 
 aggregate the identified profile fragments into a user profile response; and 
 transmit the user profile response to the profile requestor. 
 
     
     
       15. A system for generating a user profile response, comprising:
 a processor configured to operate a series of modules, wherein the modules comprise:
 a profile corpus to store a plurality of existing user profiles for a particular user; 
 a profile mediator configured to:
 receive a user profile request from a profile requestor, the user profile request being a request for the profile mediator to create a new profile for the particular user or to modify one of the plurality of existing user profiles; 
 identify profile fragments from the plurality of existing user profiles in the profile corpus, the identified profile fragments responsive to the user profile request; 
 aggregate the identified profile fragments into the user profile response; and 
 
 
 transmit the user profile response to the profile requestor. 
 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 15 , wherein the profile mediator is further configured to:
 calculate a semantic distance between profile fragments in the plurality of existing user profiles and a profile specification in the user profile request; and 
 select those profile fragments from the plurality of existing user profiles which are within a threshold semantic distance from the profile specification in the user profile request. 
 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 an ontology and concept repository; and 
 wherein the profile mediator is further configured to:
 identifying an existing ontology mapping, stored in the ontology and concept repository, between the user profile request and the plurality of existing user profiles; and 
 using the mapping to select the profile fragments. 
 
 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 15  wherein the plurality of existing user profiles stored in the profile corpus are from a plurality of web-based service providers that do not have a data-sharing agreement there between.